I live in deep blue State territory.  Most of my friends are city democrats, but not all of them.  My friends also include republicans, anarchists, libertarians, greens, and deep greens.  A bunch of the city democrats are very unhappy with Trump’s election win.  I would imagine that this is because they are convinced that women’s rights and other minority rights are going to go back to the dark ages, and that they are going to lose their medical insurance again.  There are, however, a lot deeper problems going on.  There are problems that have to do with environmental destruction, trade warfare, actual warfare, and financial shenanigans that make Bear Stearns and Enron look like a walk in the park.  What solutions do I propose, my friends ask?  Some of them are desperate, on the brink of medical bankruptcy.  Some of them have been harassed by racially profiling police officers since birth.  Some of them have watched their friends go from employed, to not employed, still searching for a job after 3 years.  Some of them have watched the local trees shrivel up and die and are concerned that the people will do the same.

Solutions depend on what the problems actually are.  Some of them are wicked problems, which have no solutions.  Some of them, on the other hand, do have totally accessible solutions.  As of 2013, there are just over 3000 counties in the United States. All of those counties have Sheriffs. Those sheriffs are the boots on the ground in enforcing, or Not Enforcing, as the case may be, the federal laws. It is the Sheriffs who confiscate or don’t confiscate guns, who prosecute or don’t prosecute hate crimes, and who have the boots on the ground capability to protect their local rivers from trespassing oil pipeline construction companies.

Furthermore it is the cities and counties who are leading the way in banning or calling moratoriums on fracking. It is on the local level that women take back the night. It is on the local level that protestors prevent nuclear power plants from being built on seashores and earthquake fault lines (or both, bless their hearts). It is on the local level that people protect their neighbors from harassment by those who think that Trump’s election allows them to harass and hate. It is on the local level that mosques and churches are protected from arson, that the hungry are fed, and the sick are healed, and the orphans find homes, and the widows find community and social support and jobs and childcare. It is on the local level that actual news can be shared, by people who don’t have agendas to knowingly lie to you by their editors. It is on the local level that direct action can be taken to protect your landbase, by people with skin in the game, people who have something to lose.